Material progressor for machines for cleaning or scouring grain, bran, or like materials



F. TANNER Feb. 2, 1954 2,667,905 OR FOR MACHINES FOR CLEANING 0R SCOURING GRAIN, BRAN 0R LIKE MATERIALS 2 Sheets-Sheet l S s E R G O R P L A I R E T A M 9 4 9 l 0 y a M d 6 l i F IN V EN TOR.

Feb. 2, 1954 TANNER 2,667,905

MATERIAL PROGRESSOR FOR MACHINES FOR CLEANING 0R SCOURING GRAIN, BRAN OR LIKE MATERIALS Filed May 20, 1949 1 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR.

V Y Ja/ymm Patented Feb. 2, 1954 MATERIAL PROGRESSOR FOR MACHINES FOR CLEANING OR SCOURING GRAIN, BEAN, R LIKE MATERIALS Fritz Tanner, St. Gallen, Switzerland, assignor to Gebriider Biihler, Uzwil, Switzerland Application May 20, 1949, Serial No. 94,418

Claims priority, application Switzerland May 25, 1948 1 Claim.

My invention relates to a machine for cleaning grains, bran and the like, including a beater rotor and a perforated drum.

In machines of this class, such as hulling, husking, decorticating, scouring and polishing machines, it is customary for the purpose of intensifying or attenuating the effect of cleaning to so exchange the rotor drive discs that the rotors rotate at higher or lower speeds as desired. An analogous effect also may be obtained by adjusting the heaters or" the rotor relative to the drum, 1. e. to vary their spacing from the latter. The said two solutions have the disadvantage that they only may be applied when the machine is out of operation, and that they are complicated and consume much time.

Machines of the class set out are known in the art, in which the rotor and drum are conical and longitudinally displaceable relative to each other so that in operation the clearance between rotor and drum, and thus the effect of cleaning is adjustable. Owing to the unequal diameters, however, the wear and tear is nonuniform and so great that the maintenance of the machine is very expensive.

The machine of my present invention differs from such known machines in that it comprises a tangential inlet and means for adjusting the passage for the goods to be cleaned through the drum during operation of the machine. ther advantage of such tangential inlet arrangement is that the high-speed beater rotor cannot suck any air through the inlet and thus also cannot produce any substantial degree of air compression inside the drum, with the result that a minimum of dust is introduced and deposited in the machine space surrounding the perforated drum. In similar prior-art machines which, however, comprise an axial inlet within the range of the heaters, the latter-as is well known produce a pronounced suction so that compressed air is blown through the perforated drum into the outside machine space, the walls of which thus soon are covered with dust.

Three forms of my present invention are shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. 1 is a lon itudinal section of a cleaning machine on the line I-I of Fig. 2,

Fig. 2 is a cross-section on the line II-II of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 shows a portion of Fig. 1 in a larger scale,

Fig. 4 is a portion of Fig. 2 in a larger scale,

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section of a second example on the line VV of Fig. 6,

A fur- Fig. 6 is a cross-section on the line VI-VI of Fig. 5, and

Fig. 7 is a cross-section of a third example.

A perforated drum 2 is secured to the machine frame I, and 3 is the beater rotor rotatably mounted in the drum 2 and driven through the belt pulley 4. As shown in Fig. 2, the substantially tangential inlet comprises two sidewalls 5 disposed parallel to the axis of the drum 2, and two baffles 6 intermediate of the sidewalls 5 and pinned to shafts 2. The latter are coupled to each other through arms 8 and a link 9. A U-shaped holder H] is secured to the latter and accommodates a cylindrical nut H2 in longitudinal slots II. A regulating spindle I3 is screwed in the nut l2 and may be turned by means of a handwheel I4 (Figs. 3 and 4). As shown in the drawing, the two bafiles 6 may be adjusted simultaneously through turning the handwheel is so as to adjust the point of entry of the goods into the drum 2 longitudinally of the latter. It, therefore, is possible to change, i. e. lengthen or shorten the passageway of the goods from the inlet down to the outlet I5. It, thus, is possible to adjust the cleaning efiect during operation of the machine.

In the example shown in Figs. 5 and 6, a fixed, tangentially arranged inlet I6 is provided in the perforated drum 2. A plurality of baffles H are disposed over the entire length of drum 2 inside the latter. The bafile are adjustable from the position shown by the full lines in Fig, 5, into the position shown by the dash-and-dot lines. According to the position of the baflles ll, the goods pass through the drum 2 on a shorter or longer way so that the cleaning effect may be correspondingly regulated.

In Figs. 5 and 6, as a modification an outlet 15 is shown, in which three closure slides 2!122 are arranged in line lengthwise of drum 2. According to which of the said three slides is open, the passageway of the goods through drum 2 will be different so that, also in this manner, the cleaning effect may be adjusted accordingly.

In the examples shown in Figs. 1-6, the drum is closed all around downstream of the inlet portion so that in the drum rear portion the goods rotate practically at the same speed as the beater rotor 3. The beating action of the rotor and the cleaning effect in the said drum portion are substantially reduced therefore. In order to eliminate such disadvantage, the drum 2 in the example shown in Fig. 7 is provided with a bay 23 which extends over its entire length and comprises an impingement face 24. At each revolution of rotor 3, the goods are flung against the said face 24 through the rotor beaters. The latter subsequently again engage the goods falling back into drumZ in order to again accelerate .the goods and throw :the same up :against the face 24. In this manner a good cleaning effect is obtained over the entire length of drum 2. At the same time, undesired impurities such as bugs, moths and their eggs, small :mmps 10f earth and the like are disintegrated and thus zrendered harmless.

What I claim as new and .desire to .secureby Letters Patent, is:

In a machine for cleaning or scouring grain, bran or like materials, having a beater rotor mounted on a horizontal axis, aperiorateddrum surrounding the beater rotor, means forming an inlet passage to admit material tangentially ,to the perforate drum, said inlet passage including two opposed vertical sidewalls and two bafiles mounted :for pivoting movement on horizontal of the material into said drum axially with respect to said rotor and to permit adjustment of the length of travel of material in said drum.

.FRITZ TANNER.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date f6,-85.1 'Southworth et al. Nov. 6, 1849 13923 v,Ball Nov. 14, 1854 288,669 'Sc'hwarzwaelder Nov. 20, 1883 33355621 Spitzer Jan. 5, 1886 233M188 =Smout Jan. 5, 1886 506,909 Barnard July 5, 1898 1,040,251 'Mic'haelsen Oct. 1, 1912 1249;852 :Symons Dec. 11, 1917 1383,463 Gould July 5, 1921 1,441,810 Megravv Jan. 9, 1923 2,269,946 Whitehead Jan. 6, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS ENuniber Country Date 831 Austria Jan. 25, .1900 285 78 Austria May :25, 1907 =403968 France -1 Oct. '7, 1909, 765-23 Austria 1 May 26, .1919 473363 Germany .Mar. 14,1929 652,574 Germany Nov. '3, 1937 

